John iii. 16. Footnote 57: Rom. iii. 23, &c. Footnote 58: Ephes. i. 5-7, 13. Footnote 59: Prov. xiv. 26. Footnote 60: 2 Kings xx. 3. Footnote 61: Ephes. iii. 18, 19. Footnote 62: Rom. viii. 37. CHAPTER XV. BOASTING OF THE MERIT OF WORKS, EQUALLY SUBVERSIVE OF GOD’S GLORY IN THE GIFT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, AND OF THE CERTAINTY OF SALVATION. We have now discussed the principal branch of this subject; that because righteousness, if dependent on works, must inevitably be confounded in the sight of God, therefore it is contained exclusively in the mercy of God and the participation of Christ, and consequently in faith alone. Now, it must be carefully remarked that this is the principal hinge on which the argument turns, that we may not be implicated in the common delusion, which equally affects the learned and the vulgar. For as soon as justification by faith or works becomes the subject of inquiry, they have immediate recourse to those passages which seem to attribute to works some degree of merit in the sight of God; as though justification by works would be fully evinced, if they could be proved to be of any value before God. We have already clearly demonstrated that the righteousness of works consists only in a perfect and complete observance of the law. Whence it follows, that no man is justified by works, but he who, being elevated to the summit of perfection, cannot be convicted even of the least transgression. This, therefore, is a different and separate question, whether, although works be utterly insufficient for the justification of men, they do not, nevertheless, merit the grace of God.